Not everything has to go

The lace is getting a good blow-dry

The reason that our house is so full of STUFF is that I am loath to throw anything out that might come in useful in the future. This does make having a clear out particularly difficult because I can still see potential value (to me) in so many items. Having said this, I have been very successful this week with my decluttering: I have sold three boxes of books, recycled a big pile of magazines, donated a bag of clothes to charity and made a start on clearing out of one of the kitchen cupboards. So, despite purchasing a pack of British wool, there has definitely been more STUFF out than in during the past seven days and, in fact, I think I’m in profit! In addition, I’ve listed a few things on ebay and progressed with laundering the collection of lace… although I haven’t found time yet to list it on etsy. So that feels like a very successful week.

However, in addition, I am keen to make use of some of the things I have been accumulating… or actually get round to doing with them what I had intended. And so, I have taken two pictures to be framed – sitting around in tubes they are clutter, but hanging on the wall they are art! And I have revitalised a couple of seat cushions that have been awaiting rescue for ages. Years ago Sam decided one of our cushions would make an ideal toy and gave it a jolly good playing with. The resulting rips could not be simply stitched together, so I put it in a drawer until I had time to sort it out… where it sat for about 7 years! The (formerly) matching cushion was used and has been in the limery on one of the wooden chairs, where it had faded from bright red to a dull pink. But today I took action – I mended the ripped cushion with mending tape, I dug out some old fabric (that I knew would come in useful eventually), and a made a cover for each cushion. So, no net gain or reduction in STUFF, but a very clear conversion from clutter to usefulness… yay!

It’s not just the overall effect of more space, less clutter, but the immense satisfaction of finally getting round to those jobs which are so old you’d forgotten all about them! Good for you. I think I’ll get a large pile of mending done today…

Long put-off jobs seem to lurk on the edge of my thought – enough to unsettle me, but still possible to ignore. However, once I motivate myself to get something done like mending the cushion, I do feel inordinately pleased with myself. In fact, the cushion was silly because it was taking up space in a drawer and is actually a really useful item.

Love the cushions – and the limery in the sunshine! 🙂
You really have done well, haven’t you?
I’m just waiting for some lwarm, sunny days (don’t laugh), to start decluttering my file drawers. There’s going to be a lot of stuff to burn once I have, and I’ve a whole set of shelves in my craft room that desperately need a looking to – trouble is, I’d rather be crocheting, or reading, or even watching paint dry, rather than doing what’s needed! Lol
Prevarication is my middle name nowadays 🙂

Haha – I know that feeling! I have to say, though, that I really got a lot of satisfaction out of composting all the paperwork I had from the university. It went in the bottom of the new raised bed, so later this year, we’ll have converted some of it to courgettes!!

Now that really is a great use of the paper 🙂
I wish we were still well enough to be growing our own still – I might have been able to get rid of my own papaerwork that way 🙂
Mind you, the last time I tackled it, I burnt out two shredders doing so! Lol